"Czechoslovakia No Longer Exists"...so ran the banner headline underneath the proclamation "LATEST NEWS"
Smaller news articles below carried headlines such as "M.HITLER IS IN PRAGUE", "M CHAMBERLAIN SPELLS OUT THE ATTITUDE OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT" "PRESIDENT HACHA RETURNS TO PRAGUE" and "HOW THE GERMANS ENTERED PRAGUE"
The multiple knots in the coarse string wound in a tight spiral along the length were difficult to undo..their age seemingly having made the fibres shrink more closely together...then they yielded thereby granting access to the packaging they had held in place so efficiently..As I unpeeled the loosely wrapped brown corrugated crepe wrapping paper from the around the tubes, small clouds of pungent dust tumbled on to my trouser legs..I wondered just where that dust had come from ..and more importantly what it was.
The crepe came off easily..exposing a second more voluminous layer underneath...of newsapaper, turned a deep beige-yellow by age ..the colour of old bones. The paper was folded over into layers and twisted closely around the tubes..it was very fragile to the touch...but one fold had worked looser than the rest over the years and fell away more easily, exposing a short length of frame tube..and another..both precisely and smoothly bronze-welded together to form the upper head-tube joint of a cycle frame.
Feeling more like an archeologist than a bike collector..I gently peeled back more loose edges...almost like peeling back a flap of dead skin on some dead animal or.. worse...The rays of the bright sun targetted the edge of the headbadge whose enamelled surface had not been tarnished in any way by its age and years of storage..and better still the grey-black dust hadn't managed to invade the intricate detail of the brasswork. The end of my middle finger shoved back the last loose corner of newsprint..the paper suddenly giving up the ghost, crumbling and falling to the floor..to join the accumulating pile of dust.
Newly exposed after decades passed in the dark, the headbadge shone out with the name "Cycles MCOD"...the two words enclosing a miniature windmill....this was a new discovery for me..not a clue about its origin..no town or city name..no national colours to give away the frame's nationality..but according to the song there are windmills in "old Amsterdam"..but there some in Norfolk too.
The tussling about of the frame on my knees had caused some more newspaper to dislodge itself..this time slightly exposing the seat cluster..again lugless with long oval top-plates highlighted in brash chrome yellow . Some of the crepe paper was resisting stubbornly, testing my patience..but my thumb nail served me well in forcing back the reluctant paper half an inch at a time until after three determined pushes a huge and immaculately preserved transfer sprung brightly into view.. not Cycles HCOD this time but "REYNOLDS 531 'HM'"...design of which I had never ever seen before.
Just what was I uncovering and discovering..and how old was this frame..? When was Cycles HCOD active? And where?
There was one certain way to find out. Reaching over behind me I gently and very carefully picked up the fragile page of newspaper, folded back the top edge just above where the sad fate of Czechoslovakia had been so graphically spelled out..and all was revealed!
The newspaper, a copy of the long defunct "Le Petit Parisien"..gave away all its secrets..."16.3.39" .... the day after Hitler had invaded and seized that country.
Now that really is as dramatic a way as I can imagine to determine the approximate age of a cycle frame.
That discovery was made about three weeks ago and I have since resisted all temptation to tear off the rest of the crepe and layers of newspaper to lay bare and naked this old but NOS frame. It seems almost sacrilegious to do so..but the temptation is growing daily.
What I do know from the glimpse of top-tube is that the enamel is a dense bright orange-red with bold double box lining in blue and the chrome yellow..and I can recognise the shape of the fork.. it too, tightly embalmed..and strapped to the seat-stays with lengths of that same tough brown fibrous string..heavily knotted..I have a feeling that this frame will not give up all its secrets without a fight.
Norris Lockley..Settle UK